Africa-Press – Nigeria. Two Nigerian-born men have been sentenced to prison in the United States for their roles in a sophisticated fraud network that drained the life savings of elderly victims across the country.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. authorities on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, sentenced 40-year-old Olumide Olorunfunmi and 43-year-old Emmanuel Unuigbe to 30 months in federal prison each.
Their sentences will be followed by three years of supervised release.
The court also ordered them to jointly repay more than $4.6 million, funds prosecutors say were stolen directly from elderly Americans who had spent decades building their savings.
According to investigators, the pair participated in a three-year scheme, operating between 2020 and 2023, that targeted some of the nation’s most vulnerable residents.
Victims, many of them seniors seeking companionship or attempting to safeguard their small businesses, were deceived through romance scams and business email compromise operations that ultimately emptied their bank accounts.
Authorities identified more than 125 victims whose money was funneled into accounts controlled by the defendants.
The stolen funds were then moved through a web of transfers and international channels designed to conceal their origins.
Prosecutors further disclosed that Olorunfunmi and Unuigbe converted portions of the illicit proceeds to Nigerian Naira via black-market currency exchanges, profiting from the conversion.
Both men had pleaded guilty earlier in the year.
A third accomplice, Samson Amos, was sentenced to five years of probation, including six months of home confinement, and was also ordered to pay restitution.
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